Pasadena Congresswoman Judy Chu Votes No On FISA Reauthorization, Which Passed The House In Thursday Vote

Rep. Judy Chu said no to the reauthorization of S. 139, section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). On Thursday, however, the House of Representatives passed FISA for six years. Section 702 enables the Intelligence Community to conduct surveillance on communications by foreigners located outside the U.S. for the purpose of acquiring intelligence information.

Chu, who also voted for the Amash/Lofgren amendment (which would have required federal agents to get warrants before searching through Americans’ data) and against the final FISA reauthorization, released the following statement:

“FISA includes flaws that were written for a different time. That is why, for years, we have been calling for a fix that would protect our citizens from FISA abuses. The bill that passed the House today is not that fix,” Chu said.

“While this bill does add new warrant requirements for law enforcement, those requirements are for display only. In fact, the FBI acknowledges that they will almost never be forced to use a warrant under this law to access e-mail or phone calls,” Chu commented.”This creates a real risk that the private information of American citizens could be handed over to other agencies without having to follow due process”

Chu also said that she believes the warrant provision is further weakened by an undefined ‘national security’ exemption so ambiguous that I worry the government will use it to allow a number of purely domestic searches.

“We must protect the rights and privacy of American citizens,” she concluded.

Rep. Chu was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in July 2009. She represents the 27th Congressional District, which includes Pasadena and the west San Gabriel Valley of southern California.